Story and screenplay by Richard Collins. Directed by Don Siegel. Filmed at Folsom Prison in California. Featuring:

Neville Brand as Dunn

Emile Meyer as the Warden, Reynolds

Frank Faylen as Haskell

Leo Gordon as Mike Carnie

Robert Osterloh as the Colonel

Paul Frees as Monroe

Whit Bissell as Snader

Opens with newsreel footage of prison riots across America--35 riots in 20 months in the early 1950s. World's largest walled prison at Jackson, Michigan. Richard McGee: prison riots the result of neglect of prisons by political leaders and the public. Prison officials wonder: "Where will the next riot occur?"

Cell Block 11, the hole, solitary confinement, the punishment block. Guards going door to door; Xs marking the doors of the wild animals. Car salesman on the radio. Music plays over speakers. One convict is worried about his little girl's health. The Colonel is eligible for parole. Night on the block: 238 in the count.

Monroe, a green guard, unlocks the door to cell 48--Schuyler--to take a present for another prisoner. The convict jumps him and drags him into the cell. He lets two other convicts, Dunn and Carnie, out, and one by one they capture the other three guards on the block.

They open the doors to the cells, the cons rush out and immediately trash the block (why?). They call up Barrett in master control: "We've got 11 Block." The notifications are made. Off-duty guards are call in, and the prison goes on alert.

In Block 11, the rampage of vandalism continues. Two of the convict leaders, Dunn and Carnie, call for attention. "If we're gonna win this, we've got to have discipline," Dunn says. They want changes to be made, like at the other prisons, and are prepared to kill the four guards to get them.

A black convict says they were only in solitary because there was no room elsewhere; they don't want trouble. Dunn and Carnie knock him out: "You're either in or out. Okay?"

The warden comes in to meet with the convicts. Dunn demands and gets safe conduct, but brings Snader the guard with him at knifepoint. Dunn wants the press. The warden says he'll get them.

The inmates spend their time making weapons. One enterprising fellow makes a catapult, another a Molotov cocktail. Dunn asks the Colonel for his help; the Colonel doesn't think anything will change. He doesn't want to participate in the riot, but agrees to help with the demands.

Monroe is worried about his pregnant wife outside. One con is an accountant; he talks to Monroe until Carnie interrupts and breaks his glasses.

The press meet with Warden Reynolds. Dunn, he says, is an armed robber and murderer. "Crazy" Mike Carnie, transferred in from the mental hospital. The Colonel is in for manslaughter as a result of a bar fight. The warden says: "95% will get out. 65% will break the law again." Commissioner Haskell arrives. "It's a fine mess you've gotten us in, Reynolds. Let's clean it up, fast."

They go to meet with the convicts (32:00). Dunn comes to the gate with a stick and set of chains. Among the beefs Dunn presents:

1. No work program. "The public ought to care. It's costing them a lot of dough."

2. Badly organized. Inmates mixed together. Four thousand men in the prison. "We're rotting to death."

Haskell takes a tough line. He threatens the inmates. When Dunn goes back inside, Carnie throws a knife at Haskell, sticking him in the chest. The Colonel is the man in the middle; he doesn't want to help, he wants to get out.

In the morning, trying to feed the men a block at a time. Reynolds and Haskell watch the yard, aware of the risk. Dunn calls to say they're ready to bargain. When Cellblock 4 is eating, an inmate throws a tray, and the inmates break out of the dining hall into the yard. The inmates in Block 5, about to be lined up, refuse to return to their cells, and they overpower guards and run into the yard as well. Warden Reynolds calls for the State Police (44:00).

Convicts ransack the prison storage buildings and set the tool shed on fire. When fire trucks arrive, the convicts overpower the firemen.

The cons from Block 5 bring the guards out and take them into Block 11. Three State Police trucks arrive. The troopers arrive an form a line facing the convicts. The order is given for the police to advance; they do so, firing tear gas and driving the cons back (the police are apparently impervious to the tear gas that drives the cons back). Dunn calls to warn: a guard will be killed for each inmate. A young trooper shoots a convict with his shotgun. The convicts are pushed back into their blocks.

The yard is clear. Bacon, the wounded convict, dies. Dunn says they will kill a guard--Snader. The warden comes down to listen to their demands. Dunn shows Snader and comes out to present his demands (55:30):

1. 11 Block remodeled. Room to breathe. More light.

2. Separate nuts.

3. Get rid of leg locks, chains and brutal guards.

4. Teach us a trade.

5. No reprisals.

Haskell tells Reynolds: "Who wrote those? It sounds like your yearly list of complaints."

Reynolds says he will agree to the demands. He doesn't know if the governor will sign. "Give me six hours."

Dunn is attacked by another inmate with a pipe. Carnie saves him. Mike Carnie is in charge now. Carnie goes to see Snader, telling him he can write a farewell letter like the other guards. Carnie starts calling guards' wives. Nine guards are being held hostage. The governor can't make up his mind to sign.

The Colonel tries to organize opposition to Carney to stop the guards from being killed. The convicts choose up sides. The Colonel says: "Let Dunn decide this." The cons are fighting among themselves when Dunn arrives. The guards are planting explosives to blow up the block.

Haskell has taken charge and goes ahead with plans to blow the block, which the convicts find out. "It's a double-cross," Dunn says. Haskell is opposed to the warden compromising with the inmates; he says that's what caused the riot. The warden says, "You'll never stop riots by treating the prisoners worse." "Do you stop them by treating them better?" Haskell asks.

The Colonel says he wants to give up. Dunn ties him up with guards on the wall, awaiting the explosion. The cons back away. The wall is set to blow, the men attached to it. The phone starts ringing. Dunn answers. The warden is coming down: the governor signed the demands.

The warden and Dunn meet; Dunn signs. He wants to see it in the papers before they give in. Guards bring the papers in at 7:30. "Victory for Cons," the headline reads.

The convicts in Block 11 celebrate. They bring the guards out. The inmates in Block 11 are searched and escorted into another block. Dunn says they've won a victory. The reporter says: "Congratulations are in order." The guards are reunited with their waiting families.

Two weeks later, Dunn is wondering why nothing has been changed yet. He is taken to see the warden. The two men meet privately. Dunn is going to be tried for leading the riot, the warden tells him. The warden says the legislature has repudiated the agreement the convicts signed. Dunn will get 30 years, Carnie goes to the mental hospital, the Colonel will get his parole. Did some good come out of the riot?

There will be an investigation. The warden says the public will listen this time. Changes were made in other states after prison riots. "Thirty years," Dunn says, as he is escorted back to his cell. (1:20:00).